Monday, 28 March 2011

A card a friend asked me to make for a little girl being christened yesterday. This image from LOTV is such a sweet one and needs very little colouring. I went with lilac as a change from pink using these gorgeous papers from Papermania called Boysenberry. Flowers from Wild Orchid with punched leaves.

Saturday, 26 March 2011

If you saw my post on Thursday you will have seen a couple of the decoupaged duck samples from Create and Craft TV. Today I thought I would share two of the lovely decoupage Poppets with you. Papers again from the SWALK CDs.The top card has punched flowers and gems and the embellies on the bottom one are from an old pack from Lakeland which matched the image so well.

Thursday, 24 March 2011

If you were watching the Crafter's Companion programme on Create and Craft TV on Sunday morning you will have seen these very cute ducks from Reddy Decoupage. I really enjoyed making these samples and thought I would share a couple of them with you today. We were asked to keep the card designs fairly simple and with such beautiful decoupage it was easy to produce lovely cards with very little embellishment. Papers are from the SWALK CDs.

Tuesday, 22 March 2011

This is my third post today. Please scroll down for Squiggle Daisy and some candy news.

This cute bear is another of my new LOTV stamps. I know he was released some time ago but he has been on my wish list since he was released and he finally found a home with me. I followed Bev's fab sketch at Lili of the Valley. The papers are from a new pack from Dovecraft, which I spotted amongst some new purchases when I visited Lynsey last week. She kindly gave me one of each so I'm not sure of the name of them, Tea House I think. I used a new Sizzix embossing folder (note to self, use embossing folders more). I think the pink card looks so pretty embossed. Flowers were punched with EK Success punches with added card candy. I have rediscovered this and it seems to be on most of my cards at the moment. The little tag sentiment is also from Craftwork Cards. The image is coloured with Promarkers and I added some spots to the butterflies with a Sakura souffle pen and glossy accents to the bear's glasses.

Good morning and what a beautiful morning it is. It's so lovely to see the Spring flowers out in the garden. Hubby even gave the grass it's first cut yesterday. Here's a little sweetie from Squiggle Stamps I haven't inked up in a while.

Sunday, 20 March 2011

I thought it would be fun to try a shaped easel card with my new Go Kreate dies. I used a cute Whiff of Joy image and some beautiful Henbury Lane paper with Prima flowers and pearls. The sentiment and card candy are from Craftwork Cards. She is coloured with Promarkers and I used a Sakura clearstar pen for a bit of bling.

Saturday, 19 March 2011

The last Mother's Day card from I think which features some very cute Penny Black mice. They are part of a clear stamp set and I put the 3 little stamps together to make this scene. A number of you have asked about the little dots I add to some images. They are made with a stamp called Field of Sky from Stamp in the Hand. I also added some tiny black gems to the image and some slightly larger ones to the corners. Papers are Papermania Boysenberry. I used the MS simple scallop punch and in place of one of the rectangles in the fab sketch from A Spoon Full of Sugar I added 2 large black flowers. Image and sentiment cut with oval Nesties.

Friday, 18 March 2011

I've had a lovely day out today and had a massage, haircut and lunch so feeling very relaxed. This week at Winter Wonderland Suzi is hosting her first challenge and has chosen embossing. A nice easy challenge for you. Now I know you are all busy making Mother's Day and Easter cards but don't forget to keep making those Christmas cards to save the rush later in the year. We are very lucky to have 2 sponsors this week, Stitchy Bear Stamps and Sentiments 4 You. I love my embossing folders but don't use them as much as I should so this was a great opportunity to use my Cuttlebug star embossing folder to match the stars on the Papermania paper. The image is Pollycraft and I used the Go Kreate dies again. I added some white card candy to finish.

Thursday, 17 March 2011

My second post for today is one of the cute Teddy Bo images with an armful of flowers. I wanted to keep the flower theme going so used various papers, the main ones being Country Companions Lover's Lane. I had fun with the embellishment at the bottom which is made from Wild Orchid flowers, silk leaves from Joanna Sheen, pearls and pink acrylic leaves and fabric hearts. I used a new Go Kreate die to cut the image. You're going to see a lot more of these as they are such a useful size. The sentiment was made on the PC and cut with a Nestie die. I also used a Marianne doily die and MS border punch.Challenges:Teddy Bo Fab sketchSecret Crafter Flowers for MumWild Orchid Dieing to punch it outCrafty Purple Frog Going greenDelightful Challenges Show us some greenCrafty Sentiments Animals

I'm always striving to improve my colouring, particularly when you have such beautiful big dresses like the one in this Kraftin' Kimmie stamp Marie Antoinette. I find it difficult to leave some white and get it right. I think this is my best effort yet, which was helped by an article in January's Craft Stamper by Kim Costello.

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

Does anyone else have problems sometimes with pop ups being blocked on blogger? I set it to allow pop ups but sometimes it just bongs when I want to add an image or leave a comment. Then suddenly it works again. This morning I was visiting many of you and it just wouldn't let me leave a comment which is very frustrating so apologies if I haven't left a comment for a while. I've used one of my new LOTV stamps here. I just couldn't resist this cute teddy image.

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

I've had a lovely day out today with my friend Lynsey. We visited 2 great craft shops and had lunch. Lots of lovely crafty chat and a few purchases of course. Why don't we have any good craft shops in Norwich? So a quick post from me tonight as I want to see the last of Gok's programme tonight at 8pm.

This is my hubby's Birthday card which he loved. He's always been a keen photographer so this Pollycraft digi image is just perfect and was a great image to 3D. I decoupaged the face, camera, camera bag and strap and shoes and then added glossy accents to his glasses, camera lens and flash.

Yes, 9pm tonight on Ideal World will see the release of the new Fairyopolis range of Flower Fairies from Crafter's Companion so I am sharing a last sneak peek with you. This is another stamped image with papers from the CD. The sentiment is also on the stamp set. I added some gems, ribbon, Sizzix cut swirls and flowers from Crafty Emma's shop and Wild Orchid.

This really is a lovely set of stamps and CD and I've enjoyed bringing you these sneak peeks.

Hasn't this little boy got two lovely big pressies to open on his Birthday. The image is one of the LOTV cute squares. I love the muted colours on this image which I have teamed with MME Wild Asparagus papers. As you can see the MS zigzag punch has been hard at work here. What did I use for male cards before I had it I wonder? I added some card candy and a Sizzix cut 3 to finish.

Time for another sneak peek of the gorgeous new Fairyopolis range from Crafter's Companion. This time I used one of the toppers from the CD and sprayed it with CC's Spray and Sparkle. It's quite an unusual colour scheme for me to use for a Birthday card but is so lovely and bright and would make a great card for a Winter Birthday in particular. I backed the topper with a die cut doily, added MS die cut butterflies, a Flora Doodle butterfly and Sizzix cut leaves with a silky Prima flower to which I added a lovely gold spacer. I would like to enter this card into the challenge of shades of green at Paperplay.

Sunday, 13 March 2011

I hope you are enjoying these sneak peeks from me and the rest of the Crafter's Companion DT. This is probably my favourite card I made using the fairy, snowdrop and sentiment stamps. The paper is from the CD.

As you can see I coloured her very delicately with Promarkers and added glitter. This was my first heat embossed card. About time I made one as I bought the embossing powder (WOW white glitter) and the heat gun at the NEC last November. I stamped the snowdrop and then heat embossed and then coloured using Distress Ink Broken China. I then stamped 3 snowflakes and cut them out and added to the bottom of the easel card. The first showing of this range will be on Ideal World at 9pm on Tuesday. There are then loads of programmes on Wednesday as it is the pick of the day. I've set my recorder for all of them!

Saturday, 12 March 2011

Here I am back again as promised with my second post for today and my second peek of the new Fairyopolis range from Crafter's Companion. This is Primrose and she features on the set of Spring stamps. I stamped her twice so that I could 3d the primrose and leaf. Papers are from the Fairyopolis CD. I added lots of glitter, some ribbon and Prima flowers with punched leaves. The sentiment is also from the stamp set and I added some doodled faux stitching. These fairies are so pretty. I'll be back tomorrow with another sneak peek.

What an exciting week I'm having. As some of you have spotted I am featured as the subscriber of the month in this month's subscriber issue of Cardmaking and Papercraft. I won the challenge at Sarah Hurley and was in the top 3 at CES. On top of all that there is the exciting release of the new Fairyopolis range next week at Crafter's Companion. I'll be back later with a lovely sneak peek number 2. And not forgetting the fab new LOTV stamps. I bought 2 of the new ones and 2 of the older ones which I have wanted for ages along with some of the cute squares. I only ordered them Wednesday lunchtime and they arrived yesterday! Can't wait to play with them but ironing calls first.

I bought some Forever Friends decoupage to make some Easter cards as I thought the images were so cute but that the stamps wouldn't get much use. It's not like buying stamps which you can use for lots of cards. I teamed the decoupage with K&Co Daisy papers and 3D daisy, used my MS simple scallop punch and some ribbon. I would like to enter this into the monochrome challenge at Forever Friends and lemon zingy at Papertake.

Friday, 11 March 2011

This is the first sneak peek of the new Crafter's Companion Flower Fairies Fairyopolis range which is launching on 15th March. There are 4 stamp sets, one for each season and a fabulous CD with decoupage, pyrimage, some beautiful backing papers and much more. In fact all that you have come to expect from Crafter’s Companion. My card was made using backing papers and pyrimage from the CD. The colours are so deep and I printed it A5 so I didn't need much to embellish the design just some Sizzix cut swirls and Prima flowers. There is a fantastic bloghop going on too where you could win £100 worth of Fairyopolis goodies. If you want to play along you need to start at Crafter’s Companion News, Views and Inspirations. So leave me a comment and then hop over to start the blog hop.

Thursday, 10 March 2011

This is my third and final post for today. I used the lovely sketch with lots of layers at Create 4 Fun. The papers are Dovecraft Piece of Cake and Forever Friends Pink Parfait. I'm really into adding charms at the moment and sorting through a bag of mixed charms I was pleased to find this four leaf clover which matches the good luck theme. It's not easy to know what to put on a good luck card but I thought that Teddy Bea with her magic wand would be lucky. I also distressed some of the edges for this one, something I haven't done for ages.

This is my second post for today which is my friend's 49th Wedding Anniversary and this is the card I gave them. I can share it now I know they have opened it. This was the second WOJ stamp I won at I love Promarkers a couple of weeks ago and thought it would be good for so many occasions. I used the fab sketch at Totally Gorjuss and would also like to enter it into the challenge of Fly me to the moon at Pollycraft.

There's lots of Spring themed challenges out there and for my inspiration for the colour scheme for this card I chose the lovely lilac crocuses and the purpley blue hyacinths that are just coming into bud. This is one of my favourite Penny Black images and of course aother thing about Spring are the April showers. If all the showers were flowers that would be OK.

Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Firstly welcome to my new followers. After I drew my last candy I lost 5 followers but have since gained another 3, so welcome ladies, hope you'll hop by as often as you can. I haven't made a baby card for ages and need some for stock and as there are a lot of baby and new beginning challenges decided to make a baby boy card today. I've just realised that the punched border and ribbon hardly show now the card is finished.

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

A quick post from me today as it is Hubby's Birthday. We had a lovely day out with friends at the coast. The weather was beautiful, lots of sunshine. I have just managed a little bit of time on the laptop while he watches a programme he recorded last night. I made this card fro a friend's granddaughter's 16th Birthday. It's my first stepper card and I shall definitely be making more of these as I think they are really effective. Her favourite colour is purple, like mine, and she loves cupcakes so this LOTV image was perfect.

Well it certainly has been a gorgeous sunny day here today so of course I made 2 Christmas cards!!!! The first is using a sweet Sugar Nellie Manga image coloured with Promarkers with lots of glitter flocking. I used snowflake and swiss dots embossing folders with punched snowflake Forever Friends Cosy Christmas and Papermania Classic Christmas papers. The adhesive border at the bottom is from K&Co. The snowflake was made with a Marianne die and MS punch.

I have some 5" square cards which I never use anymore so thought I would use them for some Christmas cards. I used this cute image from Lili of the Valley with Forever Friends Cosy Christmas papers. Flowers are Wild Orchid with Prima leaves. A strip of Papermania ribbon, some glitter and silver embellies to finish.

The sun is shining today for a change and should be out tomorrow too, hooray, as it is Hubby's Birthday and we plan a day out at the coast. I've used another Digistamp Boutique image so will enter this card into their monthly challenge. The papers and ribbon are the old Dovecraft men's papers. I used the MS zigzag punch, so good for male cards. When I use buttons I stick them on with 3d glue available from Crafter's Companion and last time I used these tiny buttons I added the glue to the buttons and they were really fiddly to stick on. This time I added the glue to the paper and then stuck the buttons on top, much easier. I would also like to enter this into the challenge of water at Cards for men and Birthday at Crafty Sentiments.

Sunday, 6 March 2011

I'm back with my second post today with a couple of tags to show you. The characters are part of the Country Companions Lover's Lane paper pad. I rarely use the characters as part of the paper on a card but though they would be perfect cut out and mounted onto tags. Papers are scraps of the same pad for the hedgie and Henbury Lane for the mouse. I would like to enter these into the challenge of Tags at A Spoon Full of Sugar and Tag you're it at The Creative Cottage.

It's another cold gloomy day here in Norfolk so perfect crafting weather. The image is from Little Claire and makes me think of warmer days. I decided to use a PATP MS set but use the corners on one paper the border punch on the other.

Isn't blogger annoying sometimes. I stopped crafting last night in order to visit lots of you and comment and what happened - commenting was blocked or I typed a comment and got an error, typed it again, same thing, sometimes the third attempt worked. Grrr, gave up in the end, just visited. So apologies if I didn't leave a comment yesterday. I did lots of visiting and saw some gorgeous work out there.

Here's another yellow and green Easter card using one of last year's Spring images from Digistamp Boutique where I would like to enter this into their monthly challenge using one of their images. The blank card is from Craftwork Cards, Papers are Wild Rose, flowers are Prima with a sweetie brad and the crystal is also Prima. I would also like to enter this into the following challenges:Sir Stampalot Spring is in the air (Yellow, green and/or blossom pink)Cute Card Thursday Signs of SpringDelightful ChallengesWelcome SpringDie Cut Dreams Spring Garden SceneCupcake Anything but square

Friday, 4 March 2011

As promised I'm back with my second DT post for today. Last time was Spring, this time it's Christmas for Jane's challenge of snowflakes at Winter Wonderland. We are sponsored this week by Pollycraft and the winner will get their choice of 5 digis from her fab store. I used a new stamp from Whiff of Joy, coloured with Promarkers and a Sakura clearstar pen for added shine. The papers are some I bought in America. They are called Fair Isle Christmas from Deja Views. I love the way the paper looks like tapestry and is very glitzy. I used my new Marianne icicle die and the snowflakes are made from white glitter card with a Marianne die and an MS punch.

Well we saw the sun for about a minute this morning, which is about the most we have seen it all week. It has really been a dreary, cloudy week for weather here. Hopefully it will brighten up soon. At least we have a few miniature daffodils in flower in the garden. At least my card has plenty of flowers. It's my DT card for Stampin’ for the Weekend where we have a nice easy challenge of Spring for you and the winner will receive a voucher from Simon Says so well worth playing along.

Thursday, 3 March 2011

This is my third post again today. Please scroll down for a couple of sweeties.

This image was sent to me last year by my lovely and talented blogging buddy Christine from Canada so I'm afraid I don't know the make of the image. I have teamed it with some Basic Grey Euphoria and Wisteria papers, organza ribbon, Prima flowers and pearls. I used the sketch at Basic Grey and would also like to enter this into the In the Garden challenge at Creative Inspirations

This is my second post today and a really quick visit for now as I have a pile of ironing waiting.

I've been admiring these bears and when I popped into The Range the other day just had to buy one. They are so cute and isn't Fizzy Moon just a fantastic name. The papers are Papermania Blueberry Pie and Boysenberry (more lush names). I am loving these new papers so much. Flowers are Wild Orchid again. I added some faux stitching around the image. I used the fabulous and rather complicated sketch at Sketch Saturday and would also like to enter this into the challenge of stitching at Ladybug Crafts Ink and four legged friends at Charisma.

I have another Mother's Day card to share with you today, this time with a Pollycraft image. Isn't she fabulous. Papers are Papermania Capsule Blueberry Pie with a scrap of Dovecraft, flowers are Wild Orchid.